Microblog mesoblog: On the cosmopolitics of the Anthropocene

It's easy to get carried away on Twitter. That's more or less its purpose. I sometimes wonder what the point of writing long threads of multiple tweets is. Why not just write it properly, in continuous prose?! However, occasionally I too indulge the medium's raison d'être.

I was re-reading a piece that I commented on before: Scientists still don’t understand the Anthropocene – and they’re going about it the wrong way by Mark Maslin and Erle Ellis.

I've read this argument many times – every time from a white, male, Western scientist (usually @erleellis). Gets the problem backwards! pic.twitter.com/gDSC3HFWwK

— Philip Conway (@PhilipRConway) July 11, 2017

(Full disclosure – and no surprises: I am also a white, male and Western, although not much of a scientist.)

Weirdly suggests that "human-induced changes" are something to be *proud* of. As though industrialism/capitalism are in no way exceptional.

— Philip Conway (@PhilipRConway) July 11, 2017

Of course, every human society had the "capacity" to industrialise, etc. We're all as intelligent/stupid as each other. But only a few *did*

— Philip Conway (@PhilipRConway) July 11, 2017

And that difference of actuality rather than potentiality makes all the difference. It's not about impacts, it's about orders of magnitude.

— Philip Conway (@PhilipRConway) July 11, 2017

But on the substance: I'm generally all for interdisciplinarity but not convinced that geologists should responsible for a cosmological UN.

— Philip Conway (@PhilipRConway) July 11, 2017

On some level, geologists should be allowed to get on with their work. If this goes well beyond them, that speaks to the limits of science.

— Philip Conway (@PhilipRConway) July 11, 2017

I should add that the Anthropocene as a scientific problem necessarily concerns more than geologists in the strict, disciplinary sense. Earth sciences are a far broader church today than they were in the past. Nevertheless, I think the point stands.

Epoch, at its (Greek) root, means 'pause, take up position.' I agree with the need to pause but it's more complex than needing 'more voices'

— Philip Conway (@PhilipRConway) July 11, 2017

It requires us to think again about the relationship of sciences not only to law/politics but to our ontologies, cosmologies, cosmopolitics.

— Philip Conway (@PhilipRConway) July 11, 2017

In this much, I agree with the article. But it begins from already blinkered presumptions regarding sciences and the rest of the world.

— Philip Conway (@PhilipRConway) July 11, 2017

They argue, in short, that:

"Defining a human epoch is so important it should not be rushed. It should be treated by scholars from all disciplines with the seriousness it deserves."

I could not disagree. However, there is a risk of politically overburdening earth scientists when, in fairness, human and social sciences are not necessarily in a position to be overconfident in their own cosmopolitical acuity.

Reminding ourselves of the Greek epokhe would therefore seem to be a necessary waypoint in this conversation.